


That One Love Letter Trope

by suprgrl1995



Series: VenSabi Modern AU [6]
Category: Disney - All Media Types, Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Fan Kid, Fluff and Crack, Gen, Love Letters, Miscommunication, Modern Era, No Beta, One Shot, Oneshot, Tropes, Valentine's Day, fan child, no beta reading
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:34:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29449368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suprgrl1995/pseuds/suprgrl1995
Summary: In which Ventus's kid writes a love letter for a school assignment, and it ends up being misinterpreted thrice. Dedicated to chibi_mushroom because A) without her, Neige wouldn't even be a concept and B) she reminded me of the trope. Written over the course of the day without much beta. Enjoy!(As of Feb 14, 2021, it's also my longest oneshot!)
Relationships: Kairi/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Naminé/Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Ortensia/Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)/Original Character(s), Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)/Original Female Character(s)
Series: VenSabi Modern AU [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2008261
Kudos: 2





	That One Love Letter Trope

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chibi_mushroom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chibi_mushroom/gifts).



Neige had been looking at her word processor for a solid minute before looking up at Ventus. The 7 year old's father was getting some silverware together for a Valentine's brunch they were holding for a few friends. No kids but Neige were allowed, of course- they'd kick her out of her own house if it wasn't for the little fact that her preferred babysitters were coming over.

“Dad, do I have to do this assignment?” she whined. One of her fingers absently going over the middle row of her keyboard, leaving behind lines of gibberish. “This is hard.”

Ven paused for a moment, then came over to her to see what she had accomplished for far. It wasn't much- just that previously mentioned line of gibberish.

“You'll figure something out.” he assured her, even pressing his lips against her temple for a moment. “You always do.” And with that, he went back to his business.

“Because _that's_ helpful.” Neige mumbled under her breath with a quick roll of her eyes. She looked back at the screen of her clam shell shaped laptop and huffed. Why'd her teacher decide to give them a weekend project anyway? No one wrote love letters to anyone anymore. It was stupid. What was Ms. Tremaine's only hint toward the project? 'Write what you know?' What _did_ Neige know about love when the boys in her class preferred to nearly kill themselves every recess to try to jump the school's fence? She honestly just wanted to be homeschooled instead of being at that ritzy private school that was _so good_ at teaching Neige all the stuff she needed to know before graduating. It was dumb. And stupid. She hated it.

Then, in thinking about how she'd much prefer her grandparents to teach her and how she'd gladly help her father with chores instead of stupid assignments, the girl was hit with a stroke of inspiration. Clearing her word processor of her nonsense from earlier, Neige started to carefully type out the thoughts as they came to mind.

_What is love?_

_I want to write a story on our love but I do not know where to begin._

_I want to write a story about a thing I see every day in you._

_Love is distance. Both near and far. Hoping to calm a storm with only patience._

_Love is always being next to you. Taking my hand to the next challenge with out asking._

_Love is not cat and mouse. Love is cat and bunny with lots and lots of kisses._

_Love is finding light in the dark. The strongest to protect the one that matters the most._

_Love is to give up what you love because you love. It will not be easy for us._

_What is love? I do not know. Can you show me?_

_I want to learn more from you and you alone._

She looked it over once, tweaked a bit of it, then gave herself a firm nod. This would do for now. If Ms. Tremaine didn't like it, then bully for her. With a spirited mouse click, Neige sent the document off to the printer. When the printing screen confirmed that it was done, the girl shut the laptop lid and took it with her back into the office. Neige set her computer down on the office desk to gloriously snatch the paper from the printer's feeder. She proudly looked over her handiwork as she walked back out to the kitchen.

“Why are you still inside?” a voice asked her as she made it past the counter. Neige jumped a good foot in the air as she looked around wildly for the source of the voice. She let out a sigh of relief in realizing that it was just Terra. Not long after, the girl's face immediately soured.

“Homework.” she spat in utter contempt.

“They give you guys stuff to work on the weekends too?” he wondered as he absently scratched the back of his neck. He then gave a shake of his head before telling her, “Head on out anyway. You know how rare it is to see Sora around here- better talk to him before your mom finds a reason to kick him out.”

“Right.” Neige agreed with a nod and a wide grin. She set her homework on the counter and quickly made her way out the door. Terra watched her for a moment with a fond grin on his face. She was growing up before their very eyes- and with how little they got to see Sora, Kairi, Riku, and Namine, it would have been a crime for her to be cooped up indoors all day.

Now, what had Terra been doing before getting sentimental over his adoptive niece? Oh yeah, he came in with a mission. Ortensia had pulled him aside and told him that she had left a surprise on the kitchen counter just for him, over by the recipe books. The old cat just gave Terra a sly smile when he had tried to ask what she meant. It had felt a bit weird, honestly. Usually Ortensia was more upfront about what she was thinking. Must have been some surprise if she wasn't going to tell him.

Terra let out a thoughtful hum as he started to go through the recipe books. Ortensia didn't say _which_ book it was, unfortunately, so Terra dug through them all. As he searched, Terra accidentally knocked over a paper that had been resting on the counter.

“Oops.” he mumbled under his breath as he bent down to get it. As he set the paper back down on the counter, he noticed that something was written on it. Terra looked over the paper with curiosity then a jolt of shock coursed through him.

_Was this the thing Ortensia wanted me to see? A love letter? Why would she want me to read a love letter?_

Terra scratched his head as he tried to figure it out. This didn't mean that Ortensia had a crush on him, right? That was just ridiculous- she and Oswald had been together for how long? Then again, Ortensia _was_ a cat…

“Whatcha looking at, Terra?” the playful voice of Sora said from behind the older man. “You look like you've found something horrifying.”

“Oh!” Terra remarked, quickly folding the paper in half so Sora couldn't read it. “It's nothing. Just something that Ortensia wanted me to find, apparently.”

“Oh really?” Sora bemused with a teasing grin. He then leaned forward a bit, tapping his nose in a mischievous manner before telling Terra, “Well whatever it is, I'll find out eventually.”

“Sure you will.” Terra retorted with a roll of his eyes. He tried to get past the weird man as he said, “Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a party outside and it's rude to leave guests alone for too long.”

“Uh huh.” Sora smirked. He snickered even more as Terra fumbled his way out of the kitchen, almost directly running into the table before placing something there as he finally headed on out. Sora let out one last chortle before going on to do what he had come in for- to steal food!

. . .

Admittedly, Neige didn't know what to do now that she was outside. She just kinda wandered between the adults, gave a polite hello to Kairi as she talked to Sabrina, Neige's mother, about how Kairi's first kid was doing. Apparently Dez had moved out to go to college. It didn't look like Sabrina was paying much attention though; she slowly drank from her small wine glass and nodded every now and again to whatever Kairi had to say. Neige looked away from her elegant mother to something else, spotting Namine a good distance away.

Namine was sitting on a plastic lawn chair with one leg folded over the other -which remained on the ground- to be a makeshift easel for her drawing pad. It kinda looked rather uncomfortable, which made the girl all the more curious about what the woman was doing. As Neige leisurely made her way over to Namine, she realized that she wasn't wearing any shoes. Maybe it helped to keep her one leg propped up?

“Hey Namine.” Neige happily greeted as she rested her arms on the plastic chair's armrest. “Whatcha drawing?”

Namine jumped a little, like she hadn't seen Neige come up, before looking over at the girl and giving a small smile.

“Would you like to see?” she offered, moving her drawing pad a bit so Neige could get a better look. The drawing that Neige saw made her recoil a little. Namine had been drawing a side view of Sabrina in a regal looking pose, holding her small white wine glass to the front a little. The face Namine had given the girl's mother was neutral, but still had an air of commanding authority to it. Neige noticed that the artist hadn't started to draw in the chair yet- probably to rework it into something more befitting to the way Sabrina was sitting. Namine had already taken liberties with what Sabrina was drinking; the liquid was quite clearly a pale pink color in real life, but Namine had instead made it a blood red.

“It's pretty.” Neige admitted, even though she shrunk a little- burying her mouth in her arms. Namine didn't seem to notice.

“I'm going to do a new portrait of everyone today.” Namine said. “I've been meaning to work on side profiles for awhile.”

“Even of me?”

“Of course!” Namine grinned as she leaned forward to give Neige a little bunny kiss. “You want one all by yourself, right?”

“Yes!” Neige happily agreed, giving a bright, wide smile. Her smile faded for a moment as she looked back to Namine's drawing of Sabrina. She wondered if Namine would draw her just like that- regal, and pretty, and…

“Hey Namine!” Sora hollered from the kitchen. “Can I borrow your far more dexterous hands for a minute?”

Namine giggled as she got up from the chair. She hugged her drawing pad a bit as she took it with her. What she didn't expect to see as she entered the kitchen was Sora struggling to open up a Mason jar filled with salt water taffies. Sora happened to spot her out of the corner of his eye- he gave her a nervous laugh as he offered the jar up to her.

“Please?” he sheepishly asked.

“Are you ever going to grow up?” she teased as she placed her drawing pad on the table.

“'Course not!” he mused with a boasting grin. “I'll be hitting the old 4-0 is the next few years. I'm practically set in my ways now.”

“Of course.” Namine laughed with a small shake of her head. As she took the jar from him, she ventured to ask, “Why didn't you ask Kairi to help you?”

“Kairi's distracting Sabrina for me.” came the answer, simple as day, combined with a roll of his shoulder. “I like being here, you know, even if _certain_ _people_ do not.”

Namine let out another light laugh before giving the jar lid a quick twist. Just like that, the lid came off with a satisfying little pop.

“Namine, you're a lifesaver.” Sora happily declared as he took the jar from her again, even moving a bit close to give her a small peck on cheek. “Without you, Riku, and Kairi, I'd be an absolute disaster.”

Now Namine started to blush. She shied away from Sora to go get her drawing pad again now that his crisis had been solved. She frowned when she noticed a loose paper by her drawings. Was it one of hers? Not thinking much about it, Namine stuck it in her drawing pad. She was about to take it and head back outside before she remembered something.

“Oh, Sora,” she said, looking back over at him. She had to hold back her laughter as the adult already stuffed three salt water taffies in his mouth, and was working on a fourth one. “I did something special earlier. It's in with my drawings- I'd love for you to see it.”

“You bet!” Sora agreed, his voice muffled slightly from the sticky candy. Namine laughed at him once more before going outside. Sora grinned as well, chewing on the taffies a bit more before swallowing them down. Good thing he did daily exercises to keep his metabolism up- otherwise Kairi would be up in his case about having to watch his blood sugar, or something.

Picking out one more salt water taffy for good luck, Sora popped it into his mouth before heading on over to the table. He happily chewed away as he opened up Namine's drawing pad to see a paper right there. Sora gave it a curious tilt of his head before picking it up. What he read on it nearly made him choke.

_A love letter? Why would Namine give me a love letter? Yeah, sure, I might have have a crush on her some time ago. But that was, like, 20 years ago! We have kids now! Happily married too! At least, I thought she was happily married. This must be a mistake. Right? How often has she hung around Riku today?_

Panic clouding most of his instinct, Sora blindly looked around to hide this obscene letter. He spotted a rather thick book on the shelf behind him. The man let out a noise of happy surprise before snatching it and shoving the paper inside a random page.

“What's got you all jumpy?”

Sora all but screamed before turning to see Riku near him. He even let out a surprised, “Riku!” that almost came out in a shrill squeak. “Didn't see you there!”

Riku looked back at Sora with a neat raise of his eyebrow. No matter how old he was, Sora hated when Riku would just stare at him until he spilled the beans. Thinking quickly, and not at all rationally, Sora quickly shoved the book in Riku's hands with a quick, “Here, take this!”

“Why?” Riku wondered, still giving Sora the Stare(TM).

“Because it's for Aqua!” Sora sputtered. “Y-yeah, super important that she gets it, you hear?”

“Uh huh...” came the least of assured responses. Sora sheepishly laughed in return as he started to sneak around Riku to head back outside. Riku did not stop staring at Sora with a suspicious glare. When Sora got to the door, he turned back to Riku with a rather pale face.

“Hey buddy, we're still friends, right?” Sora asked, trying to play off whatever fear he had with a weak smile. Riku wasn't buying any of it.

“Ye-eah…” he agreed as he placed a hand on his hip. “Why are you asking?”

“No reason. None of all. Carry on wayward son! Er, Riku!” and with that, the eccentric personality of Sora had left the room.

Riku only shook his head before starting to look around for Aqua. She hadn't been outside, and she wasn't in the kitchen, so he casually wandered into the living room. Sure enough, there was Aqua sitting on the couch as she talked to Oswald.

“Hey Aqua,” Riku greeted, earning the duo's attention, “Apparently it's super important that you get this.”

He presented the book to Aqua with very little flair, and the look on her face was easily confused.  
“Thanks?” she said as she took it. Riku only gave her a less than helpful nod before leaving. Oswald peered over Aqua's shoulder a bit to get a look at the book.

“Why was it super important for you to get 'Pride and Prejudice'?”

“Not sure.” Aqua admitted. She looked over the book for some sort of clue before noting that a piece of paper was sticking out from the book. Curious, Aqua opened the book up to find a folded letter inside. She carefully took it and started to read it over.

“Well?” Oswald asked as Aqua's face started to contort into further confusion.

“It's a love letter.”

“From Riku?”

Aqua simply shrugged as she handed the letter over. The rabbit looked over it, and eventually a bemused grin started to cross his lips.

“You mind if I take this for a bit?” he asked her. Aqua quickly shook her head.

Oswald let out a small laughter as he got off the couch and went into the kitchen. As he entered, so was Sabrina with her now empty wine glass.

“How much wine have you had today?” he teasingly asked her.

“Not enough.” came the sharp answer as the woman went undeterred to the refrigerator. “If Kairi keeps going on about how she and Sora are worried about Dez leaving the house, I'm going to chug the whole bottle then pop open a new one.”

“You're on the road to do that anyway.”

There was a disgusted scoff that Oswald couldn't help but chuckle at. Annoyed at her adoptive parent's amusement to her constant annoyance, Sabrina noticed that he was holding a piece of computer paper.

“What'd you find, old man?” Sabrina asked as she pulled out a moscato bottle from the fridge.

“Something Neige wrote.” the rabbit told her, holding up the letter with a little wave. “Aqua seems to think that Riku wrote it for her.”

“Really?” the woman snorted as she started to refill her empty glass. “Here I thought she was smarter than that. Maybe being over 40 really starts making those braincells die off.”

“I think I should tell her.”

“Why?” came the prudent question before Sabrina took a rather generous sip of wine. “This could be fun to watch.”

Oswald looked up at Sabrina, cocking an eyebrow at her.

“I'm not sure if I should be impressed or disturbed that your sense of humor hasn't waned these past twenty years.”

Sabrina only smirked as she started to fill her wine glass almost to the brim.

. . .

The adults were starting to act _really_ weird all of a sudden. And there were a _lot_ of weird things Neige came to know adults to do. This kinda felt like a 'keeping secrets' kinda weird, but that didn't make much sense. Not that anyone was going to actually tell _her_ about it. Still too young, apparently. What a bore, and no less concerning. When it came time for everyone to eat, it didn't take make much for the 7 year old to note that certain people were _very_ careful on where they sat. Not that she was going to complain- she ended up happily sandwiched between her parents.

“How much wine have you had today?” Ventus curiously wondered as he eyed Sabrina's mostly empty wine glass.

“Not you too.” she replied with a groan. “There's still half a bottle in the fridge. Besides, why are you complaining? This just means that it'll be easier to tease me later on.”

Ven's face lit up a scarlet red at the suggestion.

“Gross!” Neige indignantly hollered, knowing full well what 'adult talk' was like between her parents, however rare it occurred. The two of them looked at her, then back up at each other. A teasing smirk crossed Sabrina's lips as Ventus quickly looked away again.

Things got even weirder when they started to pass food around. Aqua tried not to brush hands with Riku when he passed her the butter dish. Terra refused to look Ortensia in the eye while they talked about some topic Neige couldn't keep track of. Sora kept changing the subject to flat out ignoring her whenever Namine tried to talk to him, which was _really_ odd in the child's mind. She wasn't the only one picking up on this weirdness, thank goodness. Kairi was also starting to have some suspicion on what was going on.

When Kairi finally ventured to ask, “Sora, is something wrong?” it was only the beginning of one large dam bursting.

Sora had jumped in his seat, looking over at Kairi with a wide, exaggerated grin. “What ever do you mean, my love?” he playfully asked. It only served to make Kairi even more suspicious.

“Oh, it's nothing.” Kairi delightfully decided, leaning close to him. “Just the little factor that you're a terrible liar, _darling_.”

The spiky haired man only offered his spouse a nervous laughter as he started to scratch the back of his neck. “Look,” he nervously try to say, “Sometimes you get a love letter from Namine that kinda makes you over think things that are already decided and...”

“What love letter?” Kairi wondered, giving Sora an odd glance before looking over to Namine. The pupils in Sora's eyes shrunk when he realized his mental flub too late. Namine, who had heard her name, was also giving him a funny look now.

“I didn't give you a love letter.” Namine insisted. Sora's face started to pale- most of the conversations at the picnic table slowly going to a halt to overhear this new drama.

“S-sure you did!” Sora nervously said. “It was in your sketchbook.”

The look Namine was giving him was becoming even more confused as she slowly shook his head at him. “I didn't...”

“That's funny,” Aqua spoke up, “Riku also gave me a love letter.”

“No I didn't.” Riku almost spat back. “Why on earth would I do that?”

“For the same reason that Ortensia would give me one.” Terra said, almost blurting it out like he had been holding it in all day.

“What?!” Ortensia nearly screeched in her own surprise. Her reaction almost making her spill the wine she was about to drink. “Terra dear, have you lost your mind?”

Now it was Terra's turn to sheepishly scratch the back of his neck. “You said you left me a surprise by the cookbooks.”

“Sweetie, it was a recipe- not a love letter.”

“Just like how I wanted you to see a drawing I made of you and Kairi,” Namine pointed out to Sora.

“Wait,” Kairi objected, holding her arms out to get everyone's attention. “So if Terra, Aqua, and Sora got a love letter from Ortensia, Riku, and Namine, but they weren't the ones to write it, then _who_ really did?”

The accusatory glares the adults gave each other caused a sudden spike of realization to hit little Neige. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that her mother took a rather amused sip from her wine glass.

“I know who wrote it.” Neige timidly spoke up. She shrank even more when she found that all the adults had their eyes on her now.

“Who?” half of them even asked. Some were more demanding than others, which only furthered the girl's guilt.

Neige felt herself flinch as she admitted. “I did.”

A hush fell over the adults now. It was Sora who gave a bewildered, “Why?”

“It was homework.” she said in a small voice. “I set it on the counter. It's due on Monday.”

The sigh of relief was almost unanimous between the adults and for a moment, Neige feared that she was going to get in trouble.

“That was where I found it.” Terra agreed. “Then when I was trying to stop Sora from seeing it, I set it on the table.”

“And I thought that paper was from one of my drawings!” Namine realized. “Which means Sora would have found it...”

“And I panicked. Stuck it in a nearby book and gave it to Riku.”

“Which I then gave to Aqua...”

“So I assumed it was from Riku.” Aqua paused for a moment before turning to Oswald. “You knew Neige had written it, didn't you?”

“Guilty as charged. You guys didn't notice that she wrote each verse about us?”

“But why didn't you say anything?”

“That would be my doing,” Sabrina spoke up, delightfully swirling her moscato. It was Sora who leaned over a bit to glare at her.

“Why must you always incite anarchy?” he asked- his voice almost boarding on annoyance.

“Because it's fun.” she replied with a charming grin. “I just gotta say though, the deduction skills in this family are simply _outstanding_.”

On that note, the atmosphere almost changed back into something completely normal again. Not that it stopped Neige from still wondering if she was going to be in trouble for accidentally causing the chaos. Sora was the one to pick up on her uneasy face.

“Sorry for totally wigging you out, kiddo.” he genuinely apologized. “We should have known better.”

“Some of us more than others.” Sabrina mumbled into her wine glass. Sora looked and her a gave her a scrunched face of dislike before looking back at Neige to give her a determined nod. Seeing the change so quickly did allow the girl to smile a bit. Pleased with the result, Sora reclined back and started to dig into his food.

Suddenly exhausted from this weird turnabout, Neige sagged against Sabrina. She felt her mother flinch but she didn't tell her to get off. Instead, Sabrina brought a hand around to stroke Neige against her cheek then absently twisting her hair in her finger.

“Here,” Sabrina offered as she leaned forward to get an empty shot glass. “You deserve this more than anyone.” With that, her mother reached for the white grape juice and the fruit platter. Sabrina filled the shot glass about half way with the juice, then picked out a strawberry from the fruit platter. Neige watched as her mother skillfully cut the strawberry in two and carefully started to squeeze its juice in the shot glass. She kept squeezing until the liquid was roughly the same color as the wine that sat in her wine glass.

Neige sat up a little as she carefully took the shot glass. At the same time, Sabrina picked up her glass and gave her daughter a nod. Neige nodded right back before the duo downed their drinks with a single gulp.


End file.
